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"In an intoxicating swirl of futuristic imagery and existential inner reflection, Meet Me in the Strange treats music and spirituality as one and the same....a wondrous, alien tale, not quite like any other story out there." -Foreword Reviews (starred review)

"Watts successfully captures not only the gravity of a teenage subculture, but also the more mercurial feeling of an axial generation on the cusp of something completely new....A bighearted and imaginative tale about a glam god’s fans." -Kirkus Reviews

From the author of Beautiful City of the Dead and Stonecutter comes a dreamy, atmospheric coming of age story that will appeal to readers of all ages.

Meet Me in the Strange is an intoxicating adventure set in a glittery, retro-futuristic world of glam rock, spectral aliens, and gender-bendy teens. Davi is mesmerized by a girl at a concert, who appears to lose herself in the power of the otherworldy music of Django Conn. Later, through a chance meeting, Davi becomes friends with the girl, Anna Z. She is like no one Davi has ever met: she loves to talk, talk, talk and has grandiose theories of the next evolution of humans and a strange phenomenon she calls the “Alien Drift.”

But danger lurks around every corner, because Anna Z is on the run, and her cruel and controlling older brother is determined to find her, at any cost. Davi faces a daunting decision, go on living a safe existence at the magical Angelus Hotel, which has been in the family for generations, or help Anna Z escape her troubled past. When the two take off to follow the concert tour of their glam-rock idol, Django Conn, Davi and Anna Z will face the biggest threat of their young lives.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"From the first page, when narrator Zee arrives at school with a temperature of 102 degrees, Watts' novel reads with the blurry intensity of a fever dream." [Praise for Beautiful City of the Dead]-- (Booklist)

"[A]n intriguing tale, and the ominous, claustrophobic tone that Watts sustains marks this writer as one to watch." [Praise for Stonecutter]-- (Publisher's Weekly)

"Two teenagers find salvation in each other in this music-tinged YA sci-fi novel.

Teen Davi is struck by a girl he sees at a glam and glitter rock concert. She isn’t exactly beautiful, but there is something that draws him to her. When he sees her leaving the Angelus—the once-great hotel founded by his great-grandfather and where Davi and his sister still live—he follows her and eventually introduces himself. She is Anna Z., and she’s a girl of a million interests and theories. The two quickly bond over their love of glam god Django Conn, whom Anna sees as the next stage in human evolution: “We’re homo lux. Humans made out of light just like in the movies and the late show on TV. That’s Django—and that’s us too.” Anna opens Davi’s eyes to ideas that he’s never before considered. Davi thinks he’s found a new best friend even though he receives warnings that Anna is not what she appears to be. Nevertheless, he is strongly tempted to join Anna on a pilgrimage to follow Django’s tour across the continent and to discover the secret of “Alien Drift,” a mysterious force that might have great implications for the future of humanity. Watts (Stonecutter, 2006, etc.) writes in an inventive, energetic prose that synthesizes slang and youthful earnestness to capture the personality of narrator Davi: “One half of me was zapped by seeing this girl, like a knife juiced with electricity cutting into my brain. She was gone, vanished, disappeared inside herself.” The world of the novel, from its language and geography to its layers of popular culture, is drawn with intricacy and vitality. Some of the plot points may feel a bit contrived, but the colorful verisimilitude of Davi and his infatuation with Anna should propel readers forward. Django is perhaps a bit too obviously a David Bowie analog, but Watts successfully captures not only the gravity of a teenage subculture, but also the more mercurial feeling of an axial generation on the cusp of something completely new.

A bighearted and imaginative tale about a glam god’s fans." -- (Kirkus review)

Review

“Meet Me In The Strange. Indeed. Leander Watts renders this strange world, this exotic, futuristic, dangerous world, brilliantly. You can feel the power of the glister rock, the music that surges through the story, through the bodies and lives of Davi and Anna Z, transforming the pair and compelling them to take the biggest risk of their young lives. It is a story, richly detailed, where the real and the supernatural dance close. What secrets lie in the hidden corridors and back rooms of the majestic Angelus Hotel? What mysterious force in Django’s raw music captures and transforms Anna Z in spirit if not body? Davi must find out. Davi will find out. But threat bites at his heels around every turn.”

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Leander Watts lives! Readers of "Stonecutter," "Wild Ride to Heaven," "Ten Thousand Charms," and "Beautiful City of the Dead" will not be disappointed by his newest YA offering. In "Meet Me In The Strange", Watts treats the reader to a sparkling ride into the world of Davi and Anna Z, two super-fans of glam rock space king Django Conn. The two soon discover that there is more to Django than his music, and face danger together to get closer to the secret. I read "Meet Me In The Strange" in less than 24 hours and it still has a glittery, cosmic hold over my brain. Fans of Velvet Goldmine and David Bowie will especially enjoy this book.

Readers of Watts’ Ten Thousand Charms, and Beautiful City of the Dead will find a familiar unfamiliarity in Meet Me in the Strange, where Watts’ recognizable characters populate a world that is Watts’ alone—a world that comes from taking both past and future, fusing them into a surreal landscape, and twisting that into a new kind of literary geometry. Davi and Anna Z pursue both Django, a “glam and glister” rock star, and a relationship that may redefine “romance.” Watts uses his ample imagination to draw together historic as well as futuristic settings and themes, and keeps the story moving. A great read for the young adult with a taste for the off-and-out of this world.